Category: Wes Anderson

Mr. and Mrs. Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting young nephew Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers — Boggis, Bunce and Bean — who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost.

2009

One long intimate stare onto the movie poster for “Fantastic Mr.Fox” was all I needed to see to conclude that this film was going to be one that would leave me astound. Well, besides the apparent fact that this is a Wes Anderson film of course. Continue reading “‘Fantastic Mr.Fox’ 2009”

Estranged brothers Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) reunite for a train trip across India. The siblings have not spoken in over a year, ever since their father passed away. Francis is recovering from a motorcycle accident, Peter cannot cope with his wife’s pregnancy, and Jack cannot get over his ex-lover. The brothers fall into old patterns of behavior as Francis reveals the real reason for the reunion: to visit their mother in a Himalayan convent.

The year is 1965, and the residents of New Penzance, an island off the coast of New England, inhabit a community that seems untouched by some of the bad things going on in the rest of the world. Twelve-year-olds Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward) have fallen in love and decide to run away. But a violent storm is approaching the island, forcing a group of quirky adults (Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray) to mobilize a search party and find the youths before calamity strikes.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” recounts the adventures of Gustave H., a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune — all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” uses a not dissimilar narrative stratagem, a nesting-doll contrivance conveyed in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-a-crucial-part-of-it opening. A young lady visits a park and gazes at a bust of a beloved “Author,” who is then made flesh in the person of Tom Wilkinson, who then recalls his younger self in the person of Jude Law, who then recounts his meeting with Mr. Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), the owner of the title hotel. Said hotel is a legendary edifice falling into obsolescence, and Law’s “Author” is curious as to why the immensely wealthy Moustafa chooses to bunk in a practically closet-size room on his yearly visits to the place. Over dinner. Moustafa deigns to satisfy the writer’s curiosity, telling him of his apprenticeship under the hotel’s one-time concierge, M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes).

All of this material is conveyed not just in the standard Wes Anderson style, e.g., meticulously composed and designed shots with precise and very constricted camera movements. In “Hotel” Anderson’s refinement of his particular moviemaking mode is so distinct that his debut feature, the hardly unstylized “Bottle Rocket,” looks like a Cassavetes picture by comparison. So, to answer some folks who claim to enjoy Anderson’s movies while also grousing that they wish he would apply his cinematic talents in a “different” mode: no, this isn’t the movie in which he does what you think you want, whatever that is. – Roger Ebert

epa04055543 An undated handout picture provided by the Berlin Film Festival organization on 05 February 2014 shows the actors Tony Revolori as Zero Moustafa and Saoirse Ronan as Agatha in a still from the film ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ by director Martin Scali. The movie opens the 64th annual Berlin Film Festival on 06 February 2014, which runs from 06 to 16 February. EPA/MARTIN SCALI/20TH CENTURY FOX/BERLINALE/HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/MANDATORY CREDIT/NO SALES/USE ONLY UNTIL 15 March 2014 HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY

Memorable & Noteworthy

What do you do when you take a very fare liking to films that are out of the ordinary? Films that are unaccustomed just as they are exciting? You share them with other movie buffs just like you! Here on this wee corner of the internet I will exhibit an array of films that I just can't get enough of. One just as special as the next and one before.